Corbett sued over legislative spending cuts

Karen LangleyOf The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG — Hours before the polls closed Tuesday, state Senate leaders filed suit against Gov. Tom Corbett, claiming he had intruded on legislative authority by vetoing portions of the fiscal code, a bill that accompanies the state budget.

Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, and Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny, also argue in the petition in Commonwealth Court that Corbett's rejection of line items in the fiscal code and in the budget itself are invalid because, they say, he did not give proper notice of the vetoes.

The filing was made electronically Tuesday evening as Pennsylvania voters elected Corbett's Democratic opponent, York County businessman Tom Wolf, to the governor's office by a nearly 10-point margin, according to unofficial returns. The lawsuit was accepted by the court Wednesday morning, when it reopened after Election Day.

Although Corbett — who is named in the suit, along with state Treasurer Rob McCord and agency heads, as a respondent — will leave office in January, the lawsuit would not be affected, said Steve McNett, the longtime general counsel to Senate Republicans who has retired but consulted on the lawsuit.

"It's an issue that will continue," he said. "It's really an institutional issue between the General Assembly and the office of the governor without particular regard to who holds it."

The issue began July 10, when Corbett signed the state budget while vetoing $65 million in funding for the General Assembly and $7.2 million in other funds. The governor said he made the reductions because in the face of a $1.5 billion deficit, the Legislature had chosen to increase its own funding while refusing his call to overhaul retirement benefits for future state and public school workers.

Leaders of the Republican majorities in the state House and Senate questioned Corbett's leadership, and Republican and Democratic legislative staff said their lawyers were examining whether the Pennsylvania Constitution allows the governor to use a line-item veto within the budget-accompanying fiscal code, as Corbett did, as well as in the general appropriations bill.

The governor's office maintained that Corbett had acted within his authority, with his press secretary, Jay Pagni, saying at the time: "The governor has the ability to line-item veto any piece of legislation with an appropriation in it."

Pagni said Wednesday that the governor's office will review the lawsuit.

In their petition, the senators say that under the Pennsylvania Constitution, the governor "may disapprove the entirety, but not merely discrete components, of a bill," except in the case of appropriations bills. But they say the fiscal code does not appropriate money but rather implements the state's operating budget.

"By disapproving select provisions in, as opposed to the entirety of, the fiscal code amendments, the governor violated the separation of executive and legislative power, impermissibly intruding on the General Assembly's legislative power," the petition states.

They contend that Corbett did not give proper notice of the vetoes within either the general appropriations bill or the fiscal code, since the House was adjourned when he attempted to return the pieces of legislation.

And they challenge the governor's placement of some appropriations in "budgetary reserve."

"It's the discretionary action of placing items in budgetary reserve by the executive that we think is improper," said Drew Crompton, chief of staff to Scarnati.